Employees of public sector banks will be on strike for two days from tomorrow
New Delhi/Mumbai:
Around nine lakh employees of various public sector banks will go on a two-day nationwide strike starting Thursday (December 16) to protest against the government’s move to privatize the two public sector lenders, union leaders said.
Most banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), have already cautioned their customers about the possible impact of the strike on banking operations such as check clearance and fund transfer.
All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) general secretary Soumya Dutta said a conciliation meeting before the Additional Chief Labor Commissioner on Wednesday failed, so the unions are going ahead with their planned strike.
The government had announced its intention to privatize two public sector banks (PSBs) during the year in the 2021-22 budget.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) had called for a two-day strike on December 16 and 17.
UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions, which include AIBOC, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Bank Employees Organization (NOBW).
AIBEA general secretary CH Venkatachalam said the conciliation meeting was attended by representatives of unions, Indian Banks’ Association and the finance ministry.
“We reiterated our stand that if the government assures that the Bank Privatization Bill (Banking Laws Amendment Bill, 2021) will not be introduced during this session of Parliament, we would be willing to reconsider the strike but the government cannot give us that. Assurance,” Venkatachalam said.
The unions tried their best to avert the strike to avoid inconvenience to the public, but the government was not coming forward, he said, adding that the strike has been called to protect and protect PSBs.
UFBU convener (Maharashtra) Devidas Tuljapurkar said that around nine lakh bank employees and officials of various public sector banks, old generation private sector banks and regional rural banks will participate in the strike.
He told reporters on Wednesday that public sector banks have always been at the forefront in the implementation of various government schemes including demonetisation, Jan Dhan Yojana, social sector insurance schemes and Mudra schemes.
He claimed that if PSBs are privatized, bank branches in rural and backward areas will be closed and implementation of all government schemes meant for socially and economically weaker sections will be affected.
Tuljapurkar said that the bank employees ranging from sweepers to senior officers will go on a two-day strike in scale 5 and protests will be held across the country.
Around 60,000 bank employees will go on strike in Maharashtra.
Earlier on Monday, all public sector lenders including SBI had requested unions to reconsider their decision and refrain from participating in the strike in the interest of customers, investors and banks.
SBI had said that in view of the current pandemic situation, resorting to the strike would cause great inconvenience to the stakeholders.
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